I'll Be Home For Christmas
by tvfan69
Summary: Takes place after the midseason finales of the Arrowverse shows. It all started when Laurel showed up in the bunker on Christmas Eve. After that it didn't take long for the next domino to fall, the next secret to be uncovered, or even the next relationship to bloom. This is the story of how our favorite Legends spend their Christmas, and maybe get some help for their mission.
1. Christas Eve

"Hi Ollie."

Oliver stood perfectly still, rooted to his spot by legs that refused to move, or feel for that matter. Standing right in front of him, somehow, was none other than Laurel Lance. For a minute he thought that he might be back in the Dominators ship, hooked up to their brain pods and that this was the start of the perfect world trap all over again. But this didn't feel like that did. He could still remember the absolute hell that had been his Christmas Eve thus far and that was certainly something that the dream world hadn't offered him. Laurel, meanwhile, stood patiently as he gathered his thoughts and waited for his reaction. She shifted her weight once or twice between her feet and tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear, never once breaking eye contact as she did.

"How?" He finally managed to get out once his mind had finally, more or less, accepted that the woman standing before him was in fact real. Although if she was really Laurel Lance was still yet to be 100% believed.

She smiled at the question, "I was hoping you could tell me." She said, "One minute I was in the hospital talking to you, I had some sort of seizure, and the next thing I knew was waking up halfway around the world with your friend Tatsu kneeling over me, and three months had passed."

Tatsu.

She had been with Tatsu.

That made some sense, offering at least an explanation to how she was alive. But how had she gotten to the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains? How did she even get out of Star City?

"I take it from the shock still written all over your face, you have no idea how I got there?" She half asked and Oliver, his mouth still parted ever so slightly from the surprise, shook his head.

"No," he confirmed, "I thought, I thought you were dead." When he said it he finally seemed to snap out of his shock, whereas it had the opposite effect on Laurel and her breath hitched at the confirmation that everyone she loved truly had believed her dead all this time. "You died, Laurel." He continued, talking a few steps closer to her. "I watched you die. I watched your seizure and I watched the heart monitor go flat, so how are you here?"

Anyone else listening to Oliver would've thought he sounded angry, and he did, but not for reasons that the untrained ear might believe. Laurel knew that he was not angry with her, far from it, but he was angry that he couldn't understand what had happened to her.

"I don't know," she answered honestly, well semi-honestly. She understood how she had recovered in Tatsu's cabin and made it back to Star City once she was well, that much made sense. But what she didn't understand was the answer to his question, which was how had she died right in front of him and yet survived without his knowledge.

Oliver's face, as always, was practically unreadable. Even after knowing him all her life Laurel still wasn't entirely sure if he believed her or not, and when he turned and began walking away she was nearly certain that he didn't.

"Come on," he called back to her, though he didn't bother looking back.

"Where are we going?" She questioned and this time he did turn back around.

"To get the shovels."

* * *

Digging her own grave was something that Laurel had never imagined she would be doing, not even after she took up the mantle of Black Canary. Technically she wasn't exactly digging her own grave right now, but rather digging it up. Not that digging up a grave had been on her to-do list; especially considering this marked her second time doing so. At least Thea had been willing to talk to her the last time, but Ollie hadn't said a word since they left the bunker. She couldn't blame him for that of course, he had come back from the dead once and even with the news informing her first she had been at a loss for words when he turned up in her office. She could only imagine the shock she was putting on him by just showing up in the bunker.

When they had finally cleared away all the dirt and unearthed the wooden casket Oliver lowered himself into the hole with Laurel doing the same right behind him. He looked at her for an instant, although why he couldn't say. Maybe he wanted to say something, but what could he say? He wanted to threaten her, to believe that she was not the real Laurel and that the real Laurel was lying beneath the cover of this coffin at their feet. But when he looked into her eyes they were so familiar. They were the exact eyes he had looked into a countless number of times over the course of his life. They were the eyes he often dreamt of during his time on the island and various other places over the course of those five years. There was nothing off about them, nothing out of place, not in the slightest. So if the Laurel by his side was an illusion or an imposter of some sort, she was a pretty damn good one.

"Ready?" He finally found himself asking and the woman beside him inhaled a deep breath in response, she looked almost as afraid of finding her own body in the casket as he did.

"As I'll ever be." She answered and the two of them stared at the closed casket for just another moment more, and then together they opened it.

There lied Laurel Lance.

They both stared at the body, breath hitching in both of their throats. Oliver felt his heart sink and it suddenly became clear to him that he had, somehow, actually allowed himself to hope. He hadn't truly expected to find Laurel's body in the coffin, but there she was. Dressed in the white dress he had only been able to assume her mother picked for her to wear when they buried her. When he finally managed to turn his head and look over at the woman standing next to him, whoever, _whatever_ , she is, she looked to be just as surprised by the sight before them as he.

"Explain," he demanded of her in an icy voice.

Her head whirled to him, one hand covering her dropped jaw and what he could swear to be tears beginning to coat her eyes.

"I-" She began before she looked back to the body as if it held the answers, and then back him when she realized it didn't. "I-" She stopped again, but this time her eyebrows crinkled and when she turned her attention back to the body it was with more of a look like she were inspecting it. "Wait," She said, beginning to bend down and reach out her hand, only to be stopped by Oliver's much larger hand latching around her wrist and holding an aggressive grip.

"Don't touch her," he commanded, his voice colder than Laurel could ever remember hearing it, but she still met his eyes.

"Then you touch her," She dared, "Because when I dug Sara up she looked like a skeleton wearing skin. Her neck and her eyes were sunken in, her clothes were hanging off her, and her skin was paler than a piece of paper. This girl has been down here for seven months."

Oliver took another look at the body, though he didn't let go of the wrist of the possible imposter. She did have a point though. The body they were staring at looked as though it could've been buried yesterday. Her skin was still the tanned color Laurel's always had been, her face just as full and bright as every picture he had been staring at since she died, and the dress still clung as snuggly to her body as it had the day of the funeral. Finally releasing his grip on the woman beside him Oliver bent over and ever so gently laid the backs of his fingers against the body in the casket.

Now Oliver Queen, being a man who has handled just as many dead bodies as he has live ones, knew the feeling of skin in both states. But the arm of the woman didn't feel like skin, instead it felt like rubber.

No, it didn't feel like rubber, it WAS rubber. Turning his hand over and griping the forearm of the body he squeezed it, just a little, and his fingers went right into it as if he were squeezing Jell-O.

"It's a dummy," The woman next to him breathed, no, LAUREL breathed. She wasn't buried in the grave six feet under, never had been. She had been with Tatsu, although how she got there and how this replica of her ended up in the casket was still a mystery that needed to be solved.

* * *

Now that their mission in Chicago was complete the crew of the Waverider found themselves facing a new dilemma, whether or not to return home for Christmas.

It was a new challenge for them, as they had never been away over the holidays before. They had more or less gone for Thanksgiving, although they didn't realize the date until after they had left. They had Gideon keeping track of the present, so that they would know what date to return to anytime they did end up going home for whatever reason. But the last time they were home everything had been so crazy with fighting the Dominators that they didn't even realize they had been there over the course of Thanksgiving. So technically they had been home for the last major holiday, but they had been working and so technically they still probably owed it to their families to go home if they could.

Currently they were all thinking it over, but there was a reason that Rip said they were destined to have minimal impacts on the timeline; they had very few things to leave behind.

Sara hadn't celebrated Christmas in nine years; unless she was counting the two years she had lived in the 50's in which case it was eleven years. And with Laurel dead she would almost welcome the distraction of remaining in the time stream over the holiday. Ray, Nate, and Amaya all claimed to not care one way or the other what they did because they don't really have anyone back in 2016, or 1942, to spend the holidays with. Ray's entire family still thinks he's dead, Nate's father apparently is dead and he has no desire to hear any lectures from his over protective mother, and the JSA wasn't exactly the type of group to spend Christmas together. Mick, like Sara, wasn't completely against going home but also would welcome not being reminded that this was the first Christmas since Snart's death. Jax was really the only one completely on the side of going home, as he wanted to spend Christmas with his mother. Even Stein was torn between wanting to go and wanting to stay, as he was afraid that he hadn't yet remembered enough about his daughter to be ready to spend Chanukah celebrating with her.

They needed to make a decision soon, as it was already well into the hours of Christmas Eve. So Sara was currently in her room and wailing on a punching bag as a means of avoiding the issue, when Gideon chimed in.

"Pardon the interruption Captain Lance, but I have received a message for you originating from Central City 2016."

Sara crinkled her brow as she stilled the punching bag and caught her breath. It didn't surprise her so much that their friends back home were able to contact the Waverider, Barry had explained the time vault and their version of Gideon to her after the first time, but what were they calling them about so soon after the Dominators?

"Play it," she requested of Gideon, almost completely expecting to hear a Christmas card message or maybe Cisco asking if the Legends would be coming home tomorrow.

"Hey Sara it's Barry, um I'm not entirely sure how to explain this to you but something's… something's happened and you, you need to come to S.T.A.R. Labs. Like as soon as possible."

The message ended and Sara crinkled her brow even more at the vagueness of it, there was nothing about it that wasn't suspicious.

"Gideon?" She asked,

"Yes Captain?"

"What are the chances this is a trap?" Sara asked wearily, after the stunt their evil speedster pulled impersonating Stein just yesterday she wasn't going to take any chances on a random message claiming to be from Barry.

"I am afraid that I lack the capability to properly determine those odds, however I can confirm that the message did in fact originate in S.T.A.R. Laboratories, Central City 2016." The AI replied and Sara nodded, she may not be 100% assured that following this message wouldn't be a death sentence but knowing that Gideon could track it's point of origin did make her feel slightly better.

Reaching up to her ear she pressed her finger against the ever-present comm., wondering whether or not she was going to end up regretting this.

"Everyone to the bridge, we've got somewhere to be."

* * *

"What are we doing here?" Mick questioned as he entered the bridge alongside the rest of the team, "I was finally getting somewhere until you interrupted my drinking."

The others rolled their eyes at his comment, Sara especially, but nobody had the patience to lecture Mick on his drinking habits at the moment so it simply passed without a response.

Sara instructed Gideon to play Barry's message for the others and when it was done she looked around at them, various expressions of confusion and skepticism written on their faces.

"Well?" She asked,

"It isn't exactly a lot to go on," Jax spoke up, of course that was a huge understatement.

"We're talking about a guy with super speed," Ray began, "On a daily basis Barry puts away Meta's who can distort reality, lift whole buildings off the ground, even manipulate the weather. If he can't put into words what's going on, it's got to be big."

"Bigger than an alien invasion?" Jax skeptically questioned, "Because he was able to put THAT into words."

Many of the others nodded in agreement, having thoughts along the same lines as Sara initially did about the message being some sort of trap.

"There's no way Gideon can be sure it was really Barry who sent the message, but she is sure that it came from the exact same source as the last message he sent, the one informing us about the Dominators." The blonde assured the rest of the team.

"So it's a pretty safe bet that it's Barry," Nate said and Sara nodded, she believed that the message was real enough to go check out what was going on. "Well then…" The historian continued, "All in favor of going home for Christmas?" He asked, raising his hand. The action was soon mimicked by Jax, Ray, Sara, and so on and so forth until the vote was unanimous.

"Strap in," Sara instructed, at her words the group disbanded and headed for their chairs, each of them wondering just what it might be that they are about to walk into.


	2. Sara

Landing in 2016 the crew of the Waverider was a little surprised to find that it was very dark outside the front windows of the ship. Sara had programmed the jump to land in the present time, which she didn't think would've been too long after receiving Barry's message.

"Gideon, what time is it here?" She asked the AI as she and the rest of the crew disengaged the restraints of their seats and shook off whatever time-travel effects a very few of them still occasionally suffered from.

"The current time is 3:24 a.m., on the morning of December 25th 2016." Gideon chirped in reply. Sara was admittedly a little surprised to hear that answer, she had known it was well past present time midnight when she got the message but she hadn't realized it was THAT late.

"Barry sent us a distress call in the middle of the night?" Ray questioned, this was starting to look more and more like a trap with each passing minute.

"The message was sent at approximately 3:12 local time, so yes." Gideon answered and if an Artificial Intelligence Unit could be frustrated, this one certainly was.

"Ok here's the plan," Sara began, not really in the mood to get in the middle of a potential argument between Ray and the computer. "There are seven of us, five of us are going in, any volunteers to stay behind?" She asked but the others only looked around at each other, wondering who among them would cave first.

"Why does anybody need to stay behind?" Nate questioned when it looked as though no one was going to volunteer for the job, but he certainly didn't want to do it.

"Because," Sara said as she met his eyes, "Before you and Amaya joined us we were on a mission where we flew right into a trap. Part of the reason we made it out alive, most of us, was that some of us stayed behind." She explained. Everyone, even the team's new members, caught her use of the term "most of us" but no one dared comment on it. Instead Mick simply raised his hand.

"I'll stay," he offered, "I can only take so much of those S.T.A.R. Lab geeks and last month was more than enough."

"I'll stay too," Amaya volunteered, earning slightly surprised looks from everyone except for Mick; he just looked plain annoyed. "These are your friends, if someone's going to stay behind it should be someone they don't know very well." She reasoned and so with no objections coming from anyone, not even from Mick, Sara nodded in acceptance of the arrangement.

"Ok," she agreed before pointing a finger between the two staying on the ship and leveling a stern glare with each of them. "But if we get back and either of you is dead or seriously hurt, there will be consequences." She warned, "One of us will text you if things turn out all clear."

With that said those going into the building they were currently docked in the parking lot of began filing one by one off the bridge, leaving behind the two who had offered to stay behind in case things went south.

* * *

Going into S.T.A.R. Labs no one on the team of Legends had any idea what it could be that they might walk into. They took it as a good sign when Barry's voice came over the speaker to buzz them in, not that the door was sufficiently locked but the action still made everyone feel a little bit better. It wasn't until they saw Barry waiting for them in front of the elevator once they reached the bottom floor that they were totally able to relax, you know as much as they could while still not knowing what exactly was going on.

Barry's eyes went to straight to Sara once the elevator door opened, his hands already wringing together anxiously as all the words he possibly could say fumbled around in his head.

"Hey," he greeted the team in very much the same awkward way he had greeted Kara when she discovered him and Cisco inside of her apartment.

"Hey, what's going on?" Sara demanded and while Barry did open his mouth words were not coming out of it.

"That's uh, that's what we're trying to figure out." He finally managed to say, and when he saw that the answer was not at all helpful he directed his attention solely onto Sara. "You might want to come alone for this," he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper, the look that the blonde gave him in response made it very clear that she wasn't in favor of that idea.

"Why?" She demanded in an icy voice, making Barry start to wonder if she were, in some ways, simply the female version of Oliver.

"Oliver's here," he finally said, by now he felt as though he could manage to get it out of his mouth that Laurel was also just down the hall, but even though doing so certainly would make this conversation easier Barry just didn't feel like it was his place. "Something happened in Star City, he came here to have Caitlin and Cisco run some tests." He told her and at the mention of Oliver resorting to help Sara's gaze seemed to soften, as she came to understand just how serious this mystery situation is.

"Ok," she agreed before looking back at the rest of her team, and then back at Barry. "But Ray comes with me," She said, "Oliver trusts him, so anything that he needs me for he can explain it in front of Ray."

Barry nodded, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to convince Sara to follow him alone and Laurel had known Ray so it wasn't like her sister would be walking in with a stranger.

"Ok," he agreed, with that he started walking away but Sara turned back to the others one last time before she and Ray followed.

"If we're not back in five minutes, come find us." She instructed.

"Will do," Nate promised and so with that all set Sara set off after Ray and Barry, to find what she had no idea.

"What do you think this is about?" Ray practically whispered in her ear as the two of them followed Barry down the long corridor.

"I have no idea," Sara replied, "But if Ollie came all the way from Star City to ask for help then it might be bigger than the Dominators."

Ray's eyes went wide for a minute, his mind trying to think up a scenario for a situation as dangerous as that. But not even his big brain could come up with a single theory for something worse than their entire planet being obliterated.

"That's a scary thought," he finally said and Sara hummed in agreement.

They walked in silence, a true achievement for Ray Palmer, for another minute or two before they reached the cortex. Sure enough Oliver Queen was standing in the middle of the room, saying something to Caitlin before they both turned to look at the new arrivals as they entered.

Sara stopped dead in her tracks just as she reached the doorway, her face completely blank as she stared ahead of her. She saw Ollie and she saw Caitlin, but her gaze was set dead onto the other woman standing right by their sides. It couldn't be, she had to be going crazy. She started wondering when the last time she slept was, or if maybe the Dominators had left something lingering in her brain even after escaping the pods.

"Laurel?" Ray's shocked voice cut through her thoughts, so at least if this was a vision in front of her he was seeing it to.

But it couldn't be a vision, not one left behind by the Dominators anyway. Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin hadn't been imprisoned on that ship but they could see her, right? Or had Ollie come her for testing because he thought he was losing his mind as well?

"Hi Ray," Laurel replied to her old friend before her eyes shifted back to her sister, "Sara."

Sara found herself swallowing a lump she hadn't even realized had been forming in her throat until now, when Laurel spoke and it sounded so real.

"You're, you're not real." The younger blonde said in protest to her thoughts, because this couldn't be real.

"She's real Sara," It was Caitlin who assured her, so that meant that the others could see her.

Sara finally snapped out of her trance when Oliver began to slowly approach her, the look on his face making it evident that he was having just as much difficulty believing this as her.

"We dug up the grave," he said, "And the body was a fake."

Fake.

That word had Sara taking just half a step back as she processed everything. Fake. The body in the casket was fake. Laurel wasn't dead, she was alive, and she was standing right here.

"And in case you're wondering," Cisco's voice spoke up from where he was seated at a computer; Sara had hardly even noticed he was there. "She is our Laurel, because we've been keeping very good tabs on Earth-2's version." He said, turning around the monitor before him and pressing a single key, displaying on the screen a live feed of one of the pipeline's prison cells with the image of another version of Laurel curled up in a fetal position as she slept.

Sara looked briefly at the screen, but she didn't need to see it. Her own mind could fool her, but not another version of her sister. No one could ever pose as Laurel and get it right. They couldn't imitate her stance, her tone, her eyes. There was only one Laurel in the multi-verse who could make all those things so familiar, Sara would bet her life on it, and that Laurel was standing right in front of her.

"I'll uh, I'll go tell the others not to come rushing down here." Ray said from where he still stood behind his captain, his words trigging those she had said to the rest of the team to flash through her mind. He was gone before she could thank him, not that it really mattered. Thanking Ray for remembering that the rest of the crew was about to come charging down to the cortex in maybe thirty seconds wasn't where Sara's focus currently was.

Instead it was on Laurel, her, by some miracle living, sister. With her brain finally beginning to turn back on she took a step forward, and then another. Once she passed Ollie Caitlin decided now might be a good time for her to back just half a step or so away from Laurel, able to see very clearly what it was that was about to happen. She was right, and the second that the younger of the Lance sister's made it past Oliver a smile broke out across her face and she all but charged the short distance into her sister's arms.

Laurel smiled a little at Sara's reaction to seeing her, and stumbled back slightly at the force of her younger sister's body slamming into hers. But she was quick to readjust herself and return Sara's hug. She hadn't really been expecting Sara's near python grip around her neck or the slight feeling of moisture creeping it's way onto the fabric of her jacket, but maybe she should have. She knew that everyone had believed her dead all these months, but confronting Ollie, a man known for not showing much emotion, and some allies she's never really known all that well, was vastly different than facing her little sister. She remembered when it was Sara who turned up alive after being dead. How everything she had felt ever since her death had come rushing back up to the surface the moment she saw her. Unfortunately with her it had almost all been anger, but with Sara it seemed to be a lot of grief. It showed Laurel all at once, without a single real word, just how much had changed in their relationship over the years. They had forgiven past mistakes and become closer for it. She knew this already, of course, but somehow the act of Sara actually crying over the fact that she thought her dead made it all the more real to Laurel.

* * *

The rest of the morning was spent running more tests than Sara normally would've cared to sit through, and she wasn't even the one being tested. However, most of the time, Laurel wasn't either. She had been put through the majority of her testing before they even called Sara, though she was still subjected to a few more blood draws and Vibes as Caitlin and Cisco tried to figure out how she had gotten to the other side of the world after her injury. The majority of the tests were being preformed on someone who would never speak a word of protest against it; the dummy. It was easy enough to figure what exactly what the thing was made out of, rubber on the outside and an extremely durable gelatin that is often used in weapons testing to assess bodily harm on the inside. The hard part was determining where in the hell it had come from. After hours of getting nowhere, and LONG after the rest of the Legends had left to do whatever it was they wanted for the holiday, Cisco finally called it quits. The freaky Jell-O Laurel, as he had called it, wasn't going to get up and walk away (yes, he did test to be sure it wasn't sentient) and he needed some sleep. Caitlin seconded that notion and Barry said that he was already late for Christmas with the West's. When Sara and Laurel brought up the idea to go pay a Christmas visit to their mother it was, surprisingly, met with only minimal resistance from Oliver. Even more surprising, after he finally gave in, he declared that he would not be going with them and would instead remain at S.T.A.R. Labs to take a nap on one of the medical cots.

"I've never known Ollie to take a nap, you know except for back in high school when slept through every class that he didn't skip." Sara joked as she and Laurel made their way through the streets of the city in Oliver's car, which he and Laurel had driven there in.

"Me either," Laurel admitted from the passengers seat, Sara was driving because after having not driven in seven months the older of the Lance sisters was a little worried about taking too sharp a turn or something of the sorts; she didn't want to die on her way to tell her mother she was alive. "But based on what he told me on the drive up here things have been pretty hectic lately, I hear you fought aliens?" She asked with a raised eyebrow and Sara laughed as she halted for a stop sign.

"You missed a lot sis," she teased and Laurel hummed in agreement.

"So what happened on your mission?" She asked, almost changing the topic completely.

"We beat Savage," Sara replied as she made their turn, "Now we're safeguarding time, which is a lot less boring than it sounds."

"I mean with you," Laurel clarified with a knowing smile, "You're different than you were when you left, happier." She observed and she also wasn't blind to the uncomfortable look that came across Sara's face before she steeled her features back into their usual state of no emotion.

"My sister just came back to life, of course I'm happy." She tried to cover with a suddenly forced smile and half amused laugh, but Laurel saw right through it.

"It's more than that," She pressed, "Something's changed inside of you."

Sara's face fell just a little bit as she thought about telling Laurel, although what she would tell her she really had no idea. Maybe she could tell her about living in the 50's and how it gave her control over her bloodlust; actually she probably should do that. But other things had changed her over the mission as well; such as losing the teammate she was closest to and taking up the position as leader.

"A lot has changed," she finally said as they pulled up to their mom's house and Sara put the car in park. "I'll tell you all about it later," She promised before a wicked smile suddenly crept it's way onto her face. "But right now let's see if we can give mom a heart attack."

Laurel smirked at her sister's words but she didn't argue them, she knew much better than to do that by now. So it was with smiles on their faces that the two girls made their way up to the front door of the house and rang the doorbell, admittedly a little apprehensive about how their mother might react to all this.

Within a minute the door opened and suddenly Sara was thinking that she might have jinxed their luck and they may have actually given their mother a heart attack. Dinah opened the door but the instant she saw her daughters on the other side, both of them, she all but froze before their eyes.

"Mom?" Sara asked, no response.

"Mom?" Laurel tried but she had about as much luck as Sara. The two girls looked to each other, as if trying to silently figure out what they should do, when their mother finally reacted… in the form of screaming and hugging.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Sara and Laurel finally saying "to hell with it" and explaining everything they could to their mother. They decided that since Oliver had revealed Laurel's identity as Black Canary that there was no reason to lie to their mother anymore about the more dangerous aspects of their lives. They didn't tell her everything, obviously, such as anyone else's identity. But it was nice for Laurel to be honest with her mother about where she had been all this time and how the circumstances of her getting there were still a mystery. It was also nice for Sara to be able to come clean to her mother about where she's been as well, or rather, when she's been.

At one point in the afternoon Dinah rushed off into the kitchen to pull her chicken out of the oven (she hadn't planned on having company, so the chicken legs in the fridge was all she had in the regards of Christmas dinner) and that left her two daughters alone in the living room.

"So now will you tell me what's happened on your mission?" Laurel started with a pleading smile; Sara couldn't help but smirk at her.

"Isn't there some kind of rule saying that a person doesn't have to answer complicated questions on their birthday?" She teased and Laurel looked at her with a deadpan expression, to which Sara laughed. "I will tell you everything," she promised, "But not today. Today I just want to be grateful to have you back."

Laurel smiled at her sister's words before throwing her head back with a very overdramatic sigh, "Fine," she drawled out, "But if you're not going to tell me about traveling through time just know that I am going to make mom sing happy birthday to you over dinner." She mocked and Sara could help but laugh at the threat.

"Don't you dare," she said but her words were matched by Laurel's devilish smirk.

"Mom," she called into the kitchen.

"Laurel!" Sara hissed,

"What honey?" Dinah called back, but before Laurel could speak Sara threw herself onto her in a tackle, reaching from behind to cover her mouth but Laurel fought the offending hands.

"Do you have any candles so we can sing happy birthday to Sara?"

With a grunt, half because of defeat and half because of an elbow to the chest, Sara climbed off her sister once the words were said and their mother could be heard rummaging around her cabinets in search of some candles.

"I hate you," the younger blonde mocked and Laurel only smiled evilly.

"No you don't," she mocked and Sara smiled back.

"You're right," she said before tackling Laurel for a second time, this time with a hug that straddled the line of being a chokehold. "I love you," she teased in an almost babying voice. "I love you, I love you, I love you." She continued while Laurel tried desperately to get out of the hold, only succeeding when she eventually toppled them both off the couch and thus forced Sara to release her in order to avoid serious injury.

They were both lying on the floor and laughing when their mother returned, looking none to amused at the sight of her grown daughters roughhousing like children.

"So this is how superheroes get along with their siblings?" She mocked as the girls climbed to their feet.

"This is nothing," Sara assured her mom, "You should see two of the guys I work with." She said, referring to the many sparring sessions between Ray and Nate.

Dinah rolled her eyes at the comment, but dropped the issue and motioned for her girls to follow her into the kitchen. They did so without a word of protest, not even a word was spoken on how their mother had, once again, overcooked the chicken. There may still be a lot of questions that need answering, but for now it can all wait until tomorrow. Today they had Christmas and a birthday to celebrate, something that the Lance women hadn't done together in a long, long time.


	3. Martin

Five minutes.

That was how long Sara asked them to wait before going to investigate. What was left of the team obeyed her orders and remained right where she and Ray had left them, at least one of them checking their phone for the time every other second.

"So do we think this is a trap?" Nate finally spoke aloud what they had all considered at least once since receiving Barry's mysterious message.

Jax shook his head, a serious expression on his face. "Nah," he replied, "We might not know what's going on, but it's not a trap." He continued just before he checked his phone for the time, not even a minute had passed yet.

"But then what is it?" Stein questioned, "What could be so… be so drastic that Mr. Allen calls us here on the holiday without being able-" He was abruptly cut off from his rant by another sudden and powerful migraine, accompanied by more memory flashes of Lily.

He saw her as a toddler; playing with a cardboard box that had presumably once held a toy she cared little for in comparison. He saw her only slightly older, perhaps five-years-old, with chocolate smeared all over her guilty face. He saw a teenager lighting their family menorah, and so forth. He saw a few more flashes as well before his head cleared, for the time being, and he was brought back to the current moment.

"Professor?" Dr. Heywood asked him, concern lacing his voice, "Are you ok?"

"Oh yes," Stein answered as he collected his bearings, "Yes I'm fine, just a headache." He excused and he wasn't blind to the fact that Jefferson was rolling his eyes, as he knew exactly what had just happened.

Dr. Heywood looked as if he were about to question things further, but Jefferson shook his head in a way that told the man of steel not to bother.

"He gets migraines every once in a while, he's fine." The younger man covered and frankly Stein was a little surprised that he did, considering his young partner has been rallying for the older man to reveal Lily's existence since practically the moment he found out about her.

But Nate nodded at the excuse, he may not have totally believed it, but he believed it enough to trust that it wasn't an issue. He then brought his phone out from his pocket in order to check the time; they still had three minutes left to wait.

Huffing out a sigh Nate bounced once on his heels and lightly clasped his hands before unclasping them again.

"So…" He dragged out, trying to make small talk. "Assuming this isn't anything bad, any plans for the holidays?" He asked but both halves of Firestorm simply exchanged glances before shrugging.

"Just the usual," Jax supplied, "You?" He asked but Nate shrugged, they had already established back on the ship that he had nothing to do for Christmas.

The next three minutes passed by annoyingly slowly, but once they had passed and Sara and Ray were still yet to return the three men did not hesitate to start their way down the long corridor to the cortex. But they hadn't even made it halfway there before they found Ray hurrying his way towards them.

"Raymond?" Stein questioned upon seeing the rather alarmed look on the younger scientist's face.

"Don't go in there," he warned as he slowed to a stop.

"What? Why?" Jax asked but Ray was already practically pushing them all to turn around.

"Long story," he said, "Short version, Sara's sister's alive."

His three teammates wheeled back around to face him at that, varying degrees of disbelief written all over their faces.

"Just so we're clear," Jax began, "We're talking about the same sister that was murdered right?" He asked and Ray nodded, clearly not understanding the situation much better himself.

"Yeah," He said, his hands settling onto his hips in a stance that he so often took when trying to explain things, be it to himself or to others. "They're trying to figure it out now, but in the meantime I think it might be best if we all gave them some space." He said and the other three slowly nodded in reluctant agreement.

"I'll text Rory," Nate announced as he pulled his phone from his pocket, "Let him and Amaya know what's going on."

* * *

With the day now free to the team they slowly started to disband and head off to their own affairs. Once out of S.T.A.R. Labs Dr.'s Heywood and Palmer began making their way back across the parking lot and to the cloaked Waverider whilst Jax announced that he was going to head straight for home.

Thus leaving Stein to stand halfway between the gate and the spaceship with no idea which path to take.

"You coming Gray?" Jefferson called, snapping his older partner from his thoughts.

"Hm?" The older man replied before he realized what had been asked. "Oh yes," he said but still made no move in one direction or the other, so naturally Jax made his way back to him.

"Ok, then why aren't you moving?" He questioned in that knowing voice that tends to fall over him whenever he is calling bullshit.

"Oh… you know… just thinking." Stein replied, being at lease partially truthful.

Jax sighed; he didn't need their psychic link to tell him that Gray was nervous about seeing his daughter. He still isn't entirely sure he likes the idea of his partner growing attached to an aberration, but he had heard about Sara finding out and accepting what happened and Stein's wishes not to fix it, so it wasn't looking like Lily would be going anywhere. Besides, the holidays aren't exactly the time for a speech on reasons you should erase your daughter from existence.

"Look," He said, "I know you're afraid that Lily's gonna bring up some memory that you don't have yet, but you can handle that." He tried assuring his partner but it was all too obvious that the man wasn't convinced, so Jax resorted to playing the card that he really hates playing. "Take it from me," he said seriously, "It doesn't matter if it's Christmas, or Chanukah, or Kwanza, or whatever. No kid, fully grown or not, wants to spend it without their dad." He said and as expected that got a look from Stein that said he, first of all that he was sorry, and second of all that he would be going.

"Jefferson-" He began but Jax wasn't in the mood to listen, he had heard enough from his mom and her friends over the years about being sorry his dad wasn't around, he didn't want to hear it again.

"It's ok," he said before cocking his head towards the exit of the parking lot. "Come on, let's go before we spend Christmas standing around in a freezing parking lot." He encouraged and Stein chuckled at that.

* * *

By the time he reached his house any of the confidence that Jefferson had instilled in him was long gone from Stein. He was nervous all over again about the prospect of Lily or even Clarissa asking him a question he doesn't have the answer to or bringing up a memory that he doesn't remember. It also just in that moment dawned on him that he had completely neglected to bring a gift for either of them. He knew that wouldn't matter of course, that they would be happy with simply having him home and he and Clarissa had always waited until the last night of Chanukah to exchange their gifts anyway. He was sure that by this age, although to be quite honest Stein still wasn't completely sure of his daughter's exact age, Lily most likely waited for that night as well. With the revelation of Laurel Lance being alive he was sure that the team would most likely be staying in the present for at least one more day, so he could always go out tomorrow and get some small things. Anyway, he was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn't even notice the front door opening up before him, revealing Clarissa with a look of surprise on her face.

"Martin!" She exclaimed as she wrapped him in a hug, one that he happily reciprocated as all of his worried left him for the moment.

"How did you know I was out here?" He asked while pulling out of the embrace enough to look at her.

"We saw you coming up the sidewalk," Clarissa explained before stepping to the side and ushering her husband into the house. "Why didn't you just come in?" She asked,

"Oh I was, I was looking for my key. But I believe I left it back on the Waverider." Martin quickly lied, although to be fair his keys were currently in a drawer in his room back on the ship.

Clarissa laughed at his excuse, believing every word of it because that was something just like her husband to do. But Stein hardly noticed her laugh, instead distracted by the sight of his daughter poking her head around the corner just at the other end of the hall.

"Dad!" She exclaimed with a bright smile, stepping out from behind the wall to reveal that like her mother she was still clad in her pajamas. "We weren't sure you'd make it back."

Stein stopped where he was just beyond the doorway as Clarissa closed the door behind them, looking at his daughter. Her pajamas consisted of pink and purple plaid pants and an oversized MIT sweatshirt that he now remembered buying for her as a high school graduation present. Her short hair hung freely around her face and she seemed rather confused when he moved forward and wrapped her in a tight hug but she still returned it eagerly.

"Don't I get a hug?" Clarissa teased from behind her husband as he released their daughter and turned, rather sheepishly, to take her into his arms as well.

* * *

As the day went on Martin recapped for his wife and daughter the events that had taken place on the Waverider over the past few weeks, leaving out the mission to 1987 of course. The two of them, in turn, filled him in on what had been happening in his absence. There wasn't anything from Clarissa that he wouldn't have expected to hear, but he seized the opportunity to learn more about Lily. She talked mostly about her work, and from what Martin was able to gather she was a lab assistant somewhere just outside of the city. He also learned that in his absence his family had grown rather close to Jefferson's mother and had invited her over for dinner tonight. So while Clarissa called to see about any changes in the plans now that the team was home, Stein found his daughter sitting on their living room couch and watching a Christmas special.

"Lily?" He asked as he approached her from behind.

"Hey dad," she replied, her head swiveling around a usual smile illuminating her face when she saw him. "Christmas Vacation is on," she informed him, turning her attention back to the TV as he came around and sat beside her.

"Yes," He said absently in acknowledgement to her words. Although to be perfectly honest Christmas Vacation was not among the list of the few Christmas movies he really enjoyed. He had heard of it and seen bits and pieces over the years, but he could never remember sitting down to watch it from beginning to end in the way that his daughter appeared to be. "Lily I just wanted to apologize for my behavior last month, I didn't mean to act so… well… coldly towards you, and I'm sorry." He said, his daughter fixing him with a curious expression.

"Ok," She hesitantly said, "But can you tell me why you were?" She asked and the look on his face must have given away that he really couldn't because her gaze suddenly turned very pleading as she adjusted herself to face him. "You said it was complicated but that was it. Dad you used to tell me everything, no matter how complex or crazy." She practically begged and Stein found himself sighing, he didn't need any rewired memories to tell him that he and his daughter share the same type of mind and that meant she would never give this up.

"Alright," he gave in, "It's a rather long story that frankly I don't quite remember." He began, cooking up a small lie in his head to explain himself. "A few weeks before returning home I suffered from some temporary amnesia as a result of a mission. Many of my recent memories returned rather quickly but the long-term memory was another story. I had only just started getting it back when we landed, I had been able to remember the very basic things about your mother and so I came here hoping that she could help me-"

"That's why you asked for her when I answered the door," Lily interrupted softly as the information processed with her. Stein nodded rather shamefully at her words. "You didn't recognize me?" She asked, almost sounding hurt and Stein could tell that on some level she was.

He wanted so badly to tell her that of course he had recognized her, that nothing could ever make him forget her. But he couldn't, because if he did he would need to tell her that she wasn't originally supposed to exist.

And he could never do that.

"I did recognize your face," He finally said as if that somehow made things any better, "But no, I had no idea who you were." He admitted, "My memories have since returned, I assure you, but I am sorry for last month."

"You don't have to be sorry," Lily said dismissively as she reached over and wrapped her father in a hug. "I'm just glad you're ok."

Stein smiled as he hugged his daughter, pulling away just as he heard Clarissa coming up behind them now that she was off the phone.

"Ok, Stacie and Jax are still coming over tonight, what do you think about inviting the rest of your team Martin?" She asked and Martin smiled at the idea.

"I think that is an excellent idea."


	4. Ray and Nate

"So… now what?" Nate asked as he and Ray made their way back to the Waverider after the decision had been made to leave Sara and apparently Laurel alone with Team Flash for the time being.

"Not sure," Ray replied, "We can see what Amaya and Rory-" But the very people he was speaking of cut him off. Just before he could open the ramp for him and Nate it lowered, and out walked Mick and Amaya.

"Where are you two going?" Nate asked as his teammates brushed right past Ray and himself.

"Don't know," Mick replied over his shoulder, "But don't wait up."

"Amaya?" Ray asked and, unlike Mick, Amaya did turn around, though she continued walking backwards in order to keep pace with Mick, and gave Ray a wordless shrug of her shoulders before turning back around and following the arsonist across the parking lot.

At this point Ray wasn't sure which occurrence was more confusing. Laurel's sudden appearance or the two most unlikely of his teammates opting to go off and spend Christmas together. Either way he and Nate made their way onto the now empty Waverider and by habit went to the library.

"Well, with those two gone, probably not a good idea to leave the ship." Ray mused as they entered.

"Come on, It's cloaked and whose going to be trying to drive through this parking lot in the middle of the day on Christmas?" Nate asked and while Ray had to admit to that point he still had no real intentions of leaving the ship, if only because he has nowhere else to go.

Suddenly Nate's face lit up as though the world's brightest light bulb had just gone off over his head.

"Hey," he said excitedly, getting Ray's attention. "The ship's empty, it's just us. No Jax to yell at us about his cargo bay and no Sara to send us to our rooms. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He asked with an excited smile that Ray not only matched but also surpassed once he caught on to the idea.

"I'll get my suit."

* * *

After a long, and for once uninterrupted, sparring session Nate and Ray settled in the kitchen for lunch.

"That went pretty well," Ray mused as he took out the sandwich supplies while Nate grabbed plates and cups, "But I really want to talk to Cisco about those upgrades before we leave." He continued before he shut the fridge, only to have Nate open it again so that he could grab the big jug of fruit punch.

"I don't know why Sara and Jax always flip out every time we spar, we put all the crates back where we found them." He mused while pouring the juice into the two cups while Ray worked on their sandwiches.

"I think Jax is more worried about the stuff that's in the crates, or that we won't put them back in the right place. Sara well… she's the captain now so I think she feels like it's her job to worry that we might break something." He theorized, holding out Nate's plate to him, which the other man accepted with a nod in thanks.

But before Ray could even take one bite out of his own lunch his phone vibrating inside of his pocket interrupted him. Putting down his sandwich he retrieved the buzzing device only to find himself looking at Stein's caller I.D.

"Hey Marty," he answered in his usual chipper voice, Nate looked over in curiosity and was met by the sight of his friend's face falling into a frown. "Ok, got it." The genius replied before his face brightened again. "Yeah that sounds great, thanks!" A little bit of a pause for Stein to speak on the other end. "Yeah Nate and I will be there," He promised, sending a glance Nate's way that had the historian even more curious about what was going on over that phone. "But you might want to give Mick a call, he and Amaya left." Ray admitted, "I don't know… Ok see you then, bye." He said and with that he disconnected the call.

"What'd Stein have to say?" Nate questioned, his mouth half full with ham and cheese.

"Not to call him Marty," Ray replied with a slight laugh. "Actually he's inviting all of us to his place for a holiday dinner tonight." He explained and Nate nodded as he swallowed his food.

"Sounds fun," He said, before a more thoughtful look crossed his face. "What should we do in the meantime?"

Ray thought on that for a minute as he took a bite of his own sandwich, truthfully it was hard for him to focus on anything aside from the mystery that had brought them here to begin with, and he could tell that the same could be said for Nate.

* * *

Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood are only capable of keeping their curiosity in check for so long.

They entered the cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs just after they had finished eating but to their surprise the place appeared deserted.

"Sara? Laurel?" Ray called out.

"Barry? Cisco?" Nate shouted and in response he received the slightest sound of a groan of annoyance.

Looking into the medical area of the cortex the two men saw none other than Oliver Queen getting off the sick bed before making his way to the doorway.

"They're gone." He informed the two Legends. "Sara and Laurel went to spend Christmas with their mother, while Caitlin and Cisco went to whatever it was they had planned for today. They all left about ten minutes ago."

"You didn't go with them?" Ray asked in surprise and Oliver fidgeted for a moment in the way that he always does when he feels uncomfortable, not that anyone would ever dare point it out of course.

"I've had a long, eventful, twenty-four hours. I figured that it might be best for me to stay behind and process everything." He excused but Ray, clearly not getting the hint, walked over and clasped his old friend on the shoulder.

"Come on Oliver, we can't let you be alone on Christmas." He said before moving past him and making way for the medical room, where team Flash had left the fake Laurel.

A sheet covered up the body, or whatever it was, because frankly Oliver had found it impossible to sleep while having to look at it. Not that he had slept of course, everyone had only left ten minutes ago and it had been a mere five minutes since H.R. showed up and promptly found reason to leave after ending up on the receiving end of Oliver's infamous glare. So he had just finally managed to get on the bed when Atom and Steel entered and once again drew him up. It's not like they were the kind of people he could trust to do their own thing while he slept, not that there are very many people alive with that quality. He doesn't know much about Dr. Heywood, but if he's anything like Ray then it's probably a safe bet that he needs a babysitter.

As if to prove his point, the two men went and yanked the sheet right off of the fake Laurel, looking rather impressed with the body.

"Please put that back," Oliver only muttered the words; he knew that this was already a lost cause.

"Dude, this thing is so lifelike!" Nate exclaimed in pure awe, not even hearing the annoyed voice of the man behind him.

"You've never met Laurel," Oliver pointed out, although he still might as well have been talking to himself.

"Yeah," Ray agreed with Nate, "Where do you think it came from?" He asked and it took every ounce of willpower that Oliver had in his body to press his mouth into a firm line and not tell Ray that he had been asking the same question for hours now.

"Don't know," Nate replied as he took hold of the dummy's wrist before letting it drop back to the table with a lifeless thud. "But to be in this great of condition after seven months underground, definitely high quality."

"Cisco's gonna kill us if we look at it without him," Ray mused and Nate nodded, but both looked as though they were still very much considering the idea and simply waiting to see who would crack first.

"We'll need a syringe." Ray stated simply and Nate nodded,

"I'm on it," he replied and he moved to go look for Caitlin's supplies but was instead pulled back by the collar of his sweater.

"No you're not," The rather fed up Oliver said as Nate let out a quick gasp of pain/surprise. "Neither of you is going to touch anything." He said sternly, glaring at both of them. "You are to leave that body-"

 _SMASH!_

Oliver was cut off by the shattering of glass and H.R. standing in the doorway with a broken cup at his feet.

"Sorry!" The man called with his face scrunched up as though he were in pain, which he most likely was considering all the spiked eggnog he'd apparently had last night so there was no way he wasn't currently hung over.

With a sigh Oliver moved to go clean up the mess, H.R. already babbling about whatever it was he had come in here for in the first place.

"Dude," Nate whispered to Ray once Oliver was both out of earshot and distracted by their sudden guest. "I just realized, he's like the guy version of Sara."

Ray opened his mouth as though to protest, but then he abruptly shut it after thinking on how Oliver had just scolded the two of them with that oh so familiar look of parental disapproval in his eyes.

"Oh my god," he muttered, coming to agree with Nate's statement.

Once Oliver had the coffee mostly cleaned up and H.R. sitting down he turned back to the two present Legends whilst dumping the glass shards of what was once a coffee mug into the nearest trash bin.

"Give him some Advil, I'm going to find a dustpan, don't touch anything." He instructed in a calm voice that was clearly teetering on the edge of the end to his patience.

"Got it," Ray said, already getting up and moving to look through the cabinets for the pain relievers.

He found them fairly quickly whilst Nate got a glass of water for H.R. who took both items gratefully.

"Thank you," he said after swallowing the pills, "On my earth we don't, we don't usually tend to mix alcoholic substances with traditionally non-alcoholic substances so I didn't exactly expect to obtain a, a… what do you call it here?" He asked,

"A hangover?" Nate supplied,

"Right, on my earth we call it a flitsnapper." He explained and Nate couldn't help but look at him as though he had grown an extra head.

"Uh…" He trailed off, not entirely sure what to make of that.

But he didn't really have time to make anything of it before he noticed Ray going for a syringe and test tube, despite Oliver's warnings.

"Dude!" He whisper-shouted, leaving H.R. on the stool where he was sat and hurrying over to his friend. "What are you doing?" He demanded, hovering over Ray's shoulder just as the other man was about to stick the needle of his barrowed syringe into the dummy.

"This thing was underground, away from light and air, for seven months. Even being synthetic it should not be in this good of condition." He replied and before Nate could argue anymore Ray jabbed the needle into the dummy and extracted a sample of the gelatin and then proceeded to squirt the now liquefied sample into his test tube.

"Great, now all we need to do is-"

"Oliver's coming!" Nate warned and of course that had Ray panicking, actually it had both of them panicking but mostly Ray because he was the one holding the evidence that they had messed with the body. He just barely managed to stash the syringe inside of a drawer and shove the test tube into his pocket, all while Nate swore H.R. to secrecy, before Oliver returned with the dustpan and broom.

The Green Arrow looked at the two Legends suspiciously for a minute before getting down on his knees to sweep up the remainder of the broken ceramic, fairly certain that considering everyone he had left in the room was still accounted for things couldn't have gotten too out of hand in the minutes that he was gone. But then again maybe he spoke, or thought rather, too soon because just as he got down Ray and Nate decided that they suddenly needed to be back on the Waverider to oversee some system upgrades or some other nonsense that they were clearly making up. They rushed out with barely more than a hurried "See ya later," before promptly leaving Oliver alone with none other than H.R.

* * *

"Oliver is going to kill us when he finds out about this," Nate deadpanned as he and Ray rushed into the med bay aboard the Waverider and Ray pulled out their own centrifuge like device.

"Which is why we need to analyze this before he finds us." The scientist reasoned as he caught his breath, they had run the entire way across the parking lot.

Anyway, he fished the test tube of "blood" from his pocket and placed it inside of the machine in order for it to be processed by Gideon, which didn't take more than a few seconds.

"The substance consists of a highly durable gelatin compound, often used in 2016 for simulating the human body in the testing of weapons, but it is being preserved by a force that I can not identify." Gideon explained once she had examined the sample Ray provided.

"So a chemical beyond 2166?" Nate questioned, he may not have been a recruit of the original mission but that doesn't mean he hadn't been informed on what year Rip had originally traveled from.

"Possibly," Gideon replied, but her voice sounded almost skeptical. "However I am finding no traces of any unfamiliar chemicals."

That had Nate and Ray looking at each other in confusion, but neither of them had time to say anything because that was when Oliver trudged in.

At first the two disobeying Legends just stared at the man whom they knew could kick both of their asses as if they were waiting for that very beating to come, but it never did. Although it might have been what Oliver was intending when he originally followed the two out to the Waverider, he had heard Gideon and what she had to say about the mysterious preservative.

"Didn't Sara say you guys have dealt with a past version of Damian Darhk?" He asked.

Ray and Nate looked between each other, as if they were both wondering why they hadn't been skewered yet, but eventually Ray answered the question.

"Yeah," he said.

"Gideon?" Oliver asked, looking to the ceiling as though he expected to find some sort of physical proof of the AI up there.

"Yes Mr. Queen?" The computer replied.

"Is it possible that the dummy is being preserved by magic?" He asked and it was quiet for a moment, as though Gideon were thinking, before she finally answered.

"Yes. In fact, I would say that that scenario is rather likely given that the sample Mr. Palmer obtained contains no traces of any long term preservatives."

Oliver looked at the other two, who stared back in just as much shock.

"Why would past Darhk switch out the real Laurel with a fake one?" Ray asked, "How does he even know about her?"

Oliver's face grew almost dark at the question.

"We need to talk to Sara."


End file.
